Monday, November 14, 2016

I have been writing for hours as much has happened at the
Interfaith Homeless Shelter recently, there will be more posts this week. They have gone into the realm of complete assholiness. I cried last Saturday night over something that happened to others and as each story is told I cry
again. When others are harmed it traumatizes the observers and has a profound effect when that person is already traumatized and realizes that eventually they will have the same thing happen to them, but for me it had already happened. There is nothing I can do to stop the abuse and help people besides speaking up and writing about it. No one else will do anything, not the governor, not the mayor, not the federal government, not the board I am not allowed to meet with, not the other non-profit entities and the news media has no interest in telling the truth about how the homeless are really treated.

This particular trauma triggered the complex PTSD I have as what happened to them was also perpetrated on myself months ago, the loss of my property and three civil cases, FOIA requests, years of work and much of it geared to getting justice and housing. The director of the Interfaith Sanctuary has told me he does not want to hear about my suitcase again and I have never received even an apology from him, but lies were told. The shelter rather than help me get housing has made it more difficult by stealing my property from me, I will not be able to recover from that act of treachery.

Last night as I came into the shelter a man was being thrown out with a six year old. I will not repeat what he said, but it was very true. I have no idea what it was about but this occurs very frequently at that shelter, more and more often. The administrative level staff are at war with the homeless and some of the lower level staff are as well, but some are not like that, good people.

We now have social work students from Boise State doing some clinical rotation that has added a whole new level of chaos and harassment. Due to events that happened last Wednesday which I will be writing about the shelter has become a Charley Foxtrot on steroids.

Some of the students are lovely people, but a couple of them are bullies. One of them keeps saying, "Dan says...Dan says...Dan says...", really, you seem to have a special relationship with him, do tell us about it. Most of what she says he says makes no sense because it is all designed to bully me. She used one of her "Dan says..." statements last night to make false accusations against me and told me Tim was going to come and talk to me. That is not the first time a false accusation was made and it was about my being targeted to begin with because, you know, "Dan says..."

Like I have said before many shelters are like Dr. Zimbardo's prison experiment and the shelters are like prisons, they even look like the dorm style prisons. At night going to the shelter is like being in a prison at night and can include staff that behave very similarly to prison guards. I have worked in prisons in Washington state, volunteered in one and then was wrongfully imprisoned in Alaska.

This abuse is why people sleep in cars or tents.

How could they be so cruel to people who are traumatized and suffering
to begin with? But they are and have demonstrated their cruelty over a long
period of time. They have also shown their lack of compassion and empathy while
wearing the mask of altruism. This is common practice all over the country, notice who these homeless people are in this video, elderly and disabled. Notice how the staff just talks about rules as an excuse for the bullying. They get away with inhumane treatment because the homeless are vulnerable and have no power or voice and the governments both state and federal allow this, in fact the federal government dictates how the non-profit industrial complex runs shelters by the rules attached to receiving grants or even doing the HMIS. There are little regulations and absolutely no oversight of what goes on at homeless shelters. There are landlord tenant acts for other types of housing but the homeless are exempt from any protection including regulations about their personal property. A landlord in most states is not allowed to just throw your property out until you are given notice and a specific time period passes. People, especially the homeless can end up in the hospital unable to even call the shelter and the area the homeless are concentrated in is inundated with police so the homeless are arrested more often for ridiculous reasons and due to special laws written to control the homeless population. When the homeless are arrested they then lose everything they have at the shelter which is very likely all they have in the world and can include valuable things like family pictures.

The picture below represents a very condescending and frankly ignorant sign on the desk at the Interfaith Sanctuary written by a children's author. I have complained about it multiple times, but this is how they treat us. I have even said, "Bill and Hillary Clinton called from the 1990s and want their neoliberal talking point back." Of course, it is also a right wing talking point. The war on the poor, the elderly and the homeless comes from all directions. Only those who know nothing about what has gone on in the United States over the last few decades and participate in the war on the poor could put such a completely backwards sign up in a shelter filled with people who can't get housing, jobs and other needs met due to actions taken for decades to prevent low income housing from happening.

Many lies at the Interfaith Sanctuary are told about people getting into housing and finding jobs. One night the director told me there was housing all over the place and I said no there is not. As a person who for almost a year looked every day, has social disabilities (most of which are false thus the civil cases) and came to realize the landlords and especially the property management corporations of Boise are prejudiced against the homeless I know this is very false. Even if they would rent to me I can't afford most of the rents. Section 8 is a big joke to us because even when people get a voucher they look for housing so long it expires and this has happened more than once to many people. False is the same as truth to the staff. I actually had someone pick this sign up and wave it in my face.

This patronizing sign is on the desk at the Interfaith Sanctuary.

Do they think the homeless have control over neoliberal economics, the oligarchy, the jobs that went overseas, the crappy wages, the huge barriers to getting an education, the lack of functional assistance to get housing and of course the corrupt government agencies and politicians. Do they think the homeless who are elderly and/or disabled have control over their age and health issues, especially considering the crappy health care. NO THE HOMELESS DO NOT HAVE ANY CONTROL AND I WILL BE DESCRIBING WHAT GOES ON IN THE SHELTER TO CONTROL US, ABUSE US AND RUN US OUT.

Yes some homeless contribute to their health issues by smoking and I am very angry that the shelter has put my health in danger by forcing me to have to function in areas filled with cigarette smoke. There are children who are exposed as well. We just had some changes that were supposed to help that but just last night someone was smoking in the Conex box the lockers are in and when I said something about it he was quite indignant that I was impinging on HIS rights. Common courtesy can be difficult to find. There are those who use drugs and alcohol and they cause problems for people in the dorms, no peace, no sleep, no sanity.

Unhealthy food is what the homeless can get to, even if people have Social Security or food stamps they can't cook and have no refrigeration. I go to the salad bar every day due to having mitochondrial dysfunction, the treatment is vegetables with lots of sulfur. I do not get a salad just some vegetables because that is cheaper and keeps without a refrigerator. In the evening I drink powdered plant material. This is the best I can do homeless. The food at the shelter is filled with beans and they cause inflammation which of course increases pain and other problems. Breakfast at the local soup kitchens is filled with sugar and that increases inflammation. Huge numbers of the homeless have diabetes mellitus and obesity, much of the weight issues are of course due to the sugared food available. I normally do not even eat sugar and spend a great deal of time cooking everything from scratch. The only sweetening I used was dates, a little honey or a little organic maple syrup. I now eat foods with sugar and other ingredients I don't normally consume such as wheat. There is no other choice. My years of taking good care of myself and using food, spices, herbs and teas to treat the ME/cfs have been slowly turned around and much of what I need to eat is impossible to consume as a homeless person.I take those spice shaker bottles and shake them into water and drink it down.

Sunday morning was my chore day. A man came in who had been thrown out, he has severe dementia, I know because on multiple occasions he lost his backpack and things in various places and I helped him find them. The shelter staff have no skill to deal with those with dementia but then why has Idaho and Boise placed those who need assistance for many health issues on the streets? I was just told there is housing for those who are gravely disabled and elderly, but why when I called Adult Protective Services about people in this situation last winter did they blow me off then. They often throw them out because they can't follow the massive rules and then are constantly bullied and eventually blow up. Those with dementia can become aggressive when constantly confronted due to frustration and being accused of things they can't even remember do along with being bossed around. Women are generally worse than men due to the Chihuahua effect, feeling vulnerable. They threw him out without his things and he came back saying it was a week ago, this may not be when it really happened due to his memory. They of course threw his things out. I expressed my concern for him and said that I had called Adult Protective Services for some people but without his name they can do nothing and probably will do nothing about it anyway. I wondered if they called APS over concern for a man who is obviously gravely disabled. That staff is a bully who is quite illogical, a smug liar. After the conversation I said to someone he will assign me the toilets now, but what he does not know is I don't mind doing the toilets. Then I said I was going to ask him to assign me the toilets. I went outside to take off my jacket and get some gloves because they only have large ones and that is not good protection for small hands. When I come in he says he already made the assignments. Then he gives me an assignment outside after I put away my jacket and had on a short sleeve shirt for doing chores. I was to wipe down the benches and tables, but they were all covered in ice. My hands were frozen by the time I got done and now my fingers have cracks in them. When I wanted to work outside and was actually doing extra chores they sabotaged that and as always were quite illogical. I was the only woman given an outside chore. This is what goes on.

One time that kid was bullying me and saying things that made no sense and I said, "You know what, I'm a writer, maybe I'll make you famous, you paint an interesting picture sitting there with your feet up on the desk, playing games on your cell phone and not doing your job." There is only one guy on night shift, that person needs to at least have common sense. The other night staff is a nice, intelligent man who knows the difference between being bossy and being a bully as demonstrated by his actions.

I expect hate and abuse. When we communicate the truth that is what happens.